1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses, such as copy machines, need to have storage capacity for storing image data of plural pages of documents in order to provide functions of processing plural pages of a document (e.g. a sort function, a combine function, a double-sided printing function). However, image forming apparatuses that do not have a high-capacity storage unit including an HDD can store only image data of a limited number of pages of a document, and hence the storage space may become full during reading of the document.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 06-233088 (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”) discloses a communication terminal device to solve such a problem. This communication terminal device compares a detected available memory size with first, second, and third thresholds. The communication terminal device removes image information from the memory if the available memory size drops to the first threshold, suspends storing images if the available memory size drops to the second threshold, restarts storing images if the available memory size exceeds the second threshold, and terminates storing images if the available memory size drops to the third threshold.
However, because the communication terminal device of Patent Document 1 determines whether it is possible to store image information based only on comparison of the available memory size with predetermined thresholds, even if read image information has a size smaller than the available memory and can be stored in the memory, the communication terminal device might terminate storing images.